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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Called to Serve

Good morning,
Brothers and Sisters. I have been asked to choose my own topic that I would
speak on. With general conference last weekend, I found several potential
topics through the lessons of the speakers. Between the exciting announcement
of the Provo tabernacle temple and the parenting tips given out to newly weds
that were forced to be married from Spring conference, I found a message that I
felt strongly enough about to speak to you today.

As members of the
church, we are invited on many occasions to help those in need. This could be towards
a friend, to a stranger, in a group or by yourself. Christ, during his ministry
on Earth, helped anyone in need that would come to him. As members of His
church, we must strive to become Christ-like and follow his example. Service is
a great act of love that helps the person in need as well as spiritually
strengthens the one giving the service.

Sister Allred, First Counselor in the
Relief Society Presidency, shared this story with us. “Rosa suffers from
debilitating diabetes and other ailments. She joined the Church a few years
ago. She is a single mother with an adolescent son. She frequently has to be
hospitalized for a few days at a time. Her kind visiting teachers not only take
her to the hospital, but they visit and comfort her at the hospital while also
watching over her son at home and school. Her visiting teachers serve as her
friends and family.”

For me, doing service for someone else
in need always makes me happy, no matter how big or small the task. I can only
imagine the visiting teachers’ joy as they aided Rosa with her everyday life.

A few months ago, my family moved from Cedar Hills to Highland.
This would be our second move within a year’s time, and none of us were looking
forward to it. We had been to the Highland ward a couple of times, and families
were shaking our hands left and right. When it came time to move, my dad asked
if we could have a few people help move us from Cedar Hills to Highland. On the
morning of moving day, more than a dozen fathers and sons were parked in front
of our house wearing gloves and jeans. Everything was swiftly carried onto
trailers and taken to our new home, where it was all neatly placed into its
proper place. The service and caring nature of the new ward had blessed our
lives from the day we walked into theirs.

King Benjamin is
coined with the famous phrase, “When ye are in the service of your fellow
beings, ye are only in the service of your God.” King Benjamin not only taught
this law; he lived it. He says, “And even I, myself, have labored with mine own
hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and
that there should be nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne ­–
and of all these things which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this
day. Yet, my brethren, I have not done these things that I might boast, neither
do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you these
things that ye may know that I can answer a clear conscience before God this day.
Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in
your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of
God.”

President Thomas S. Monson is our latter-day King Benjamin. He is well
known for his wonderful gospel stories, and is endlessly serving others. Elder
Eyring shared his own experience with President Monson. “President Thomas S.
Monson, at the end of almost every meeting, asks the secretary to the First
Presidency, ‘Am I up to date on my work?’ And he always smiles when the answer
comes back: ‘Oh, yes, President, you are.’ President Monson’s pleased smile
sends me a message. It makes me think, ‘Is there something more I could do on
my assignments?’ And then I go back to my office to work.”

President Monson
taught, “We will discover that those whom we serve, who have felt through
our labors the touch of the Master’s hand, somehow cannot explain the change
which comes into their lives. There is a desire to serve faithfully, to walk
humbly, and to live more like the Savior. Having received their spiritual
eyesight and glimpsed the promises of eternity, they echo the words of the
blind man to whom Jesus restored sight, who said, ‘One thing I know, that,
whereas I was blind, now I see.”

As a missionary, I understand that service will be one of the ways
to open the hearts of those that would be interested in the church. I’ve heard
many experiences from both of my older sisters who have served missions. Many
of the people they baptized would not have taken that first step if it weren’t
for their love of service. I am leaving to
serve a mission. I am giving up my time, my talents and myself to God, and
I know I will be in His safe and caring hands.